The art of working in Mosaic ascends to high anti quity, and probably preceded painting. It is not obvious, however, as some have asserted, that it was known to the Jews, although that nation was acquainted with singular pavements ; for the Koran relates, that when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she was received in a hall where she mistook the pavement for water, and bared her limbs; on which Solomon said, (' the floor is solid : it is made of glass." Likewise, amidst the wonders beheld by John, in the Revelation, was " a sea of glass like unto crystal." But other eastern nations were acquainted with Mosaic ; for in the palace of Ahasuerus was u a pave ment of red, and blue, and black marble," Esther, chap. i. v. 6. Ciampini, an author who has bestowed much investigation on this subject, ascribes the invention of Mosaic to Persia, of which there does not seem to be satisfactory evidence; and it must be admitted that there is considerable uncertainty as to the precise country over which Ahasuerus reigned.
The name illosaicum, Musiacum, or JIMS[OZIM, was first employed old) towards the fourteenth century ; and the words pavimenta Lithostraia, sectilia, recta, or tease Iota, were used to denote mosaics properly so under stood by the ancients. Thus it is affirmed that the painted floors of the Greeks gave way to mosaic ; Pliny observes, that Lithostrata acceptavere jam su3 Sylla parvulis ccrte crustis extat hoditque,quod in Fortu na delubro Pracneste feat. Pulsa deinde ex humo part menta in cameras transiere e vitro, lib. xxxvi. cap. 60, 61. Athenxus speaks of the rich pavements in the palace of Demetrius Phalereus, lib. xiii. § 60; and Ifiero, king of Syracuse, is said, by the same author to have had an extraordinary ship constructed, in which the tesselated pavements of the cabins represented the whole fable of the Iliad, lib. v. § 41. Thus the art was familiar to other nations as well as to the Romans, from whom our acquaintance with it is derived. Isidorus afterwards designs real mosaic very distinctly, by lithostrata par volts crustis ac tessellis junctos ir. varios Ori gin. lib. xv. cap. 8. Pavimentum sectile was composed of large compartments of marble; sect= merely of al ternate square pieces ; tesselatum, or quadratorium, from the word tessera, a die constituted real mosaic, of small cuhes of glass or marble ; and the pavimentunz vcrmicu latum, consisting of the same, received that name only from its peculiar figure. Learned foreigners remark, that it is only in Britain that the correct designation of mosaic is preserved in tesselated pavement. The art of
colouring glass practised in the age of Augustus, greatly promoted the use of mosaic ; it became so common, that at length, Seneca, reproaching the luxury of his cotem poraries, complains, that they seemed unwilling to tread, unless upon precious stones. Eo deliciarum pervenimus ut nisi calcarc nolimus, Ep. 36.
From the Romans it spread into their provinces, and as they had the sovereignty of Europe, there are few countries where relics of Mosaic are not new discovered. Justinian also decorated the church of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, during the sixth century, with works of the same kind, which are partly doublets or pieces of glass united horizontally, with a coloured foil inter posed, as may be seen at this day. Sonic of the earliest popes decorated the churches of Italy with Mosaic, but the art declining there from the fifth or sixth century, is believed to have been almost totally lost, until Andrea Taffi learned it from a Greek artist Apollonins, who was employed on the church of St. Mark, at Venice, in the thirteenth century. This is to be viewed as the scurce of the modern Mosaic, which, as we have observed, has attained an infinitely greater perfection in some respects than that of the ancients, and has been carried to a great extent. The names of few of the ancient artists have come down to us, but among others those of Dioscorides, a Samian, and Archimedes, a Syracusan, are preserved. Many of the moderns are celebrated, from Giotto in the fourteenth century down to Tucca in the sixteenth ; Nlancini, Calandra, Lafranc, in the seventeenth ; Cristo fori, Btughi, Calendrelli, Camucci, and many more in the eighteenth and nineteeth.
The price of Mosaic depends nn the quality and ex tent of the work, in which there is as great a difference as in any paintings. Pictures of large size have cost X5000, £6000, or more. Small personal ornaments or toys can be obtained for a few shillings. There are masters in Alosaic as well as in painting.
The greater Mosaic works of the ancients probably were devoted to their halls and baths, while that of the moderns is employed in churches. None of the former are found entire, or with the rarest exceptions, but por tions are frequently disclosed in the coot se of excava tion, which enable us to judge sufficiently of the extent, design an.l execution of them. Stine persons erro neously suppose that the colour of stones and marble is permanent, but it fades in both, almost without excep tion, on lung continued exposure in the air.